Kerala gold smuggling case: Sleuths to look into forgery of documents

KOCHI: Sleuths part of the multi-agency probe into the Thiruvananthapuram gold smuggling case will seek further evidence from the state protocol office relating to the smuggling of gold through diplomatic channel.
According to sources with the Customs preventive, the specimen signature of the authorised signatory of the consulate available with the state protocol office would be crucial in verifying the suspected forgery of documents by the racket to smuggle gold through the diplomatic channel for 20 times.
“Many of the documents submitted by the accused to smuggle gold through the channel has signatures of a top consulate official. At least in the first 18, the signature is of the same person. We can match the specimen signature with the signature in these documents to see if the accused forged the documents or faked the signatures,” said a Customs official, adding that they were planning to source the specimen signature through formal channels after informing the court.
It is also learnt that the probe agencies, including Customs and the National Investigation Agency, would look into the contact history of Swapna Suresh and Sartih P S, the accused in the case and former employees of the UAE consulate, with officials of the protocol office.
The investigation is to find if the accused received any kind of favours from their contacts at the protocol office.
“Both these accused were in touch with some officials at the protocol office. Statements of these officials would be recorded. Though the accused has claimed that they used to contact the official of the protocol office for purposes of the consulate, this needs to be verified. At the same time, the office has taken a stand that there were only limited communications between the consulate and the office. We need to get more clarity on this,” said a source.
Enforcement directorate on the other hand is looking into the matter that Swapna received a commission relating to the welfare housing project at Thrissur district funded by Red Crescent through Thiruvananthapuram UAE consulate.
Even as there were reports about the Enforcement Directorate (ED) planning to record the statement of Life Mission CEO U V Jose, senior officials with the ED investigating team said that they haven’t issued a notice to the bureaucrat on the matter yet.